Battle over hanged Russian billionaire oligarch's £100m inheritance

Battle over billionaire oligarch Vladimir Alekseyevich Scherbakov’s ‘missing’ £100m will: Girlfriend of UK-based tycoon who was found hanged while fighting extradition to Russia on fraud charges is locked in High Court fight with his ex-wife and children

  • Scherbakov, 56, died in hanging mystery in 2017 whilst hiding from the Kremlin 

The girlfriend of a super-rich Russian tycoon who died in mysterious circumstances is locked in a legal battle with his ex-wife and his children over his ‘missing’ £100million will – which includes the rights to a £12m mansion in Surrey.

Businessman Vladimir Alekseyevich Scherbakov, 56, died in June 2017 while he was being investigated by the Kremlin on charges of fraud – despite reportedly being confident he was about to be absolved at the time of his death.

His assets include the home in England he shared with partner Brigita Morina as an elite member of London’s private member’s clubs – and his last will, made in the country two years before he died, leaves most of his wealth to her and their children.

But Scherbakov’s adult children Olga Scherbakova and Alexander Scherbakov, along with their mother Elena Scherbakova, are locked in a High Court battle with Ms Morina claiming that he ‘tore up’ the will because he wanted his eldest offspring to share in the cash.

Ms Morina, 42, has fired back, claiming the will has not been destroyed but ‘misappropriated’ by someone connected to the siblings in an attempt to extort €35m (£30m) from her in exchange for its return.

Russian billionaire Vladimir Alekseyevich Scherbakov died in 2017 as he was being investigated by the Kremlin


Scherbakov had been living with girlfriend Brigita Morina (pictured left) at the £12m Granville House mansion in Surrey, which is among the assets contested in his £100m will

She insists the siblings must have been involved in the ‘suppression’ of the will, but the pair – representing themselves in court – both deny all knowledge of such a plot.

Court documents detail that Scherbakov had Olga and Alexander with Elena, but the pair split and he went on to form a relationship with Ms Morina – former creative director of luxury Swiss watchmakers DeLaneau – in 2010.

He spent his time with her in England, partly at £12m Granville House, his mansion in Weybridge, Surrey, as well as owning a multimillion-pound townhouse in Pont Street, Belgravia, and a £400,000 wine collection.

READ MORE: Mystery death of Russian billionaire tycoon probed by the Kremlin sparks UK court battle between his girlfriend and ex-wife over his huge fortune including £12million Surrey mansion 

He was a member of prestigious London clubs, including the Arts Club, in Dover Street, and Mayfair’s 5 Hertford Street club, proposing to Ms Morina at a Knightsbridge restaurant in 2015.

However, he left the UK for Belgium in 2016 to avoid extradition to Russia amid an investigation into an alleged banking fraud, which was ultimately dropped – and died the next year.

At London’s High Court, Ms Morina and the adult children are now fighting over his final will, which left Ms Morina and her family almost all his non-Russian assets, said to be worth ‘in excess of £100 million.’

However, with the original will unaccounted for, Olga and Alexander insist that their dad must have destroyed it because he no longer wanted Ms Morina to benefit so greatly.

Opening the case, Ms Morina’s barrister Hodge Malek KC said the will could not have been destroyed, because it was examined by an expert in the course of an alleged ‘extortion’ attempt against his client.

He said an offer had been made to hand over the document in exchange for €35m and the document forensically analysed during a meeting in Paris.

‘[Ms Morina’s] case is that the original English will existed after Vladimir’s death,’ he told the court.

‘It was inspected…for the purposes of verifying that it is the original. As such, as a matter of English law, Vladimir did not revoke the English will.

‘The original English will was – at an unknown point in time – misappropriated and has since been suppressed by certain persons who have refused to deliver it up unless Ms Morina pays a substantial ransom sum.’


Vladimir Scherbakov’s adult children from his marriage, Alexander (left) and Olga (right), are staking their claim to their father’s fortune. They are pictured outside the High Court in London

Brigita Morina, girlfriend of Vladimir Scherbakov at the time of his death, pictured outside the High Court

Although they firmly deny involvement and say the extortion claim was a ‘set up,’ Mr Malek says the ‘irresistible inference’ from the evidence is that the siblings were involved in the ‘suppression’ of the will.

He said they and their mum – who has stopped actively participating in the case despite being a party – had ‘attacked [Ms Morina] on multiple fronts, at great human and emotional cost.’

It included denigrating the quality of her relationship with Vladimir, which they characterised as an ‘affair’ or ‘romantic relationship,’ when in fact it was a ‘lasting and deep-rooted relationship.’

The Times reports that Elena is serving a jail sentence in Russia after allegedly falsifying a marriage contract.

‘[Ms Morina’s] case is that Vladimir consistently intended to provide for her and their children upon his death pursuant to the provisions of the English will,’ the barrister told Mrs Justice Bacon.

‘In response, the adult children complain that because Vladimir made substantial provision for Ms Morina during his lifetime, it cannot have been Vladimir’s intention to make generous provision on his death.

‘However, she submits such provision is consistent with Vladimir’s continued love for Ms Morina and their children and the fact that his family with Ms Morina was the centre of his life.’

Mr Malek said the relationship between the adult children and Vladimir had ‘remained strained and distant’ up to the time he died, but he had already looked after them financially.

‘Despite their strained relationship, Vladimir had provided generously for them, to the point where he considered he had fulfilled his sense of obligation to support them,’ he told the judge.

‘As such, it is unsurprising that the English will does not provide for Olga and reduces Alexander’s inheritance.’

He said the adult children claim that it should be ‘inferred’ that Vladimir destroyed the will with the intention to revoke it because their relationship had improved between 2015 and the time of his death.

But he continued: ‘Vladimir enjoyed a loving relationship with Ms Morina and their children, which endured until his death.

‘The execution of the English will was consistent with Vladimir’s intention to provide for those he loved.

‘Given his consistent use of lawyers, it is unlikely that Vladimir would have destroyed the English will and relied on an undetermined intestacy regime to carry out the monumental task of disposing of his assets on his death.

‘His relationship with the adult children did not improve after the execution of the English will such that he would have intended to benefit them more than he had already done so.’

‘Vladimir did not know that the original English will had fallen into the hands of a third party.

‘He would not have intended to die intestate. If he had known that the original English will was lost into the hands of a third party, he would have made a new will.’

Ms Morina is also asking the court to declare that Mr Scherbakov was ‘domiciled’ in Russia at the time of his death, but resident in England, and that his English will is valid.

Olga and Alexander are fighting her application for a grant of probate and want a declaration that he was domiciled in Belgium at death and died intestate.

They have not yet formally opened their case in the trial, which is expected to last two weeks.

A preliminary hearing for the case, in 2021, heard that Scherbakov had fled to Belgium from Britain to avoid being extradited to Russia after authorities there opened a fraud investigation.

Scherbakov, the court was told, had been ‘excited’ to be able to return to London after learning that the Kremlin investigation was about to be dropped in April 2017.

However, he was said to be waiting for the prosecution to formally drop the case when he was found dead in Belgium two months later, reportedly hanged.

The High Court battle is the latest in a line of legal battles between Scherbakov’s two families.

Following his death, the families fought in a Belgian court over his remains, which resulted in a judge handing the right to dispose of their father’s body to his adult children.

In another struggle, involving his offshore business interests in the British Virgin Isles, his companies were said by a judge to have ‘at least a nine-figure dollar value’.

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